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Microsoft

Microsoft Copilot

AI embedded in Microsoft 365, where most enterprise work already happens.

Chat & General LLMs Active #LLM#GeneralAssistant#Microsoft365#Enterprise

In short

Reaches into Outlook, Word, Excel, Teams, and SharePoint with the organization's own content, under existing Microsoft tenancy, identity, and compliance controls. For most large enterprises that governance continuity matters more than raw model quality.

What it is best at

  1. Summarising Teams meetings and long Outlook threads
  2. Drafting and analysing directly inside Word and Excel against internal documents
  3. Surfacing answers from SharePoint and internal knowledge under existing permissions

Built for: Enterprise Operations · Compliance/Audit Professionals · Marketing

Technical foundation

Base model
Primarily OpenAI models running under Microsoft's enterprise infrastructure, with Microsoft's own models in some surfaces.
Context and file handling
Works against the organization's existing Microsoft 365 content, which is the point. Standard document and spreadsheet handling.
Latency
Adequate. Perceived speed varies considerably by host application.
Output quality and limits
Model quality is competitive. The differentiator is grounding in the tenant's own data with permissions respected, not standalone reasoning.

Pricing and access tiers

TierModelKey inclusionsLimits
Free$0Consumer chatRate limits, no tenant grounding
Microsoft 365 CopilotPer-seat, annualIn-app AI across Microsoft 365, tenant grounding, admin controlsRequires qualifying M365 licence
Azure OpenAIPay per tokenDirect model access under Azure controlsQuota by subscription

Pricing, version numbers, context-window sizes, and compliance certifications change frequently. Where stated they are accurate as of the as_of date and should be confirmed with the vendor before any procurement or compliance decision. Where they could not be stated confidently they are omitted rather than guessed.

Security, privacy and governance

Training data opt-out
Commercial data protection applies to licensed enterprise use: prompts and responses are not used to train foundation models. The free consumer tier operates under different terms.

The governance question this raises

Because it inherits existing Microsoft 365 permissions, it will surface anything a user already had access to. Organizations with permissive legacy SharePoint permissions frequently discover the problem only after deployment. Fix permissions before rollout, not after.

No compliance certifications are listed here. Certification status is vendor-specific and time-specific, so it is stated only where verified rather than assumed. Check the vendor’s trust centre and confirm it covers the specific tier you are buying.

Integrations and ecosystem

  • Native across the Microsoft 365 suite
  • Power Platform and Power Automate
  • Azure services

API and SDKs: Available through Azure OpenAI for direct model access, and extensible via Copilot Studio.

The verdict

Strengths

  • Governance and identity continuity with existing Microsoft tenancy
  • Grounded in the organization's own content
  • Easiest enterprise procurement path for Microsoft shops

Drawbacks

  • Expensive per seat, and value varies widely by role
  • Exposes pre-existing permission sprawl
  • Quality inconsistent across host applications

Consider instead: Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude

Frequently asked questions

What is Microsoft Copilot used for?

Reaches into Outlook, Word, Excel, Teams, and SharePoint with the organization's own content, under existing Microsoft tenancy, identity, and compliance controls. For most large enterprises that governance continuity matters more than raw model quality.

What model does Microsoft Copilot run on?

Primarily OpenAI models running under Microsoft's enterprise infrastructure, with Microsoft's own models in some surfaces.

Does Microsoft Copilot train on your data?

Commercial data protection applies to licensed enterprise use: prompts and responses are not used to train foundation models. The free consumer tier operates under different terms.

What are the alternatives to Microsoft Copilot?

The closest comparable tools are Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude. Which fits depends on where the work already lives and what the organization's data terms require.

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